Panasonic has been slowly and steadily increasing their smartphone portfolio since launch. They have been focused on the sub Rs 15,000 segment and the latest addition to their smartphone range is the Panasonic Eluga Icon — a phablet that competes with the likes of Yureka Plus, Redmi Note, Lenovo K3 Note and Huawei Honor 4X.

The first thing you notice about the Icon is that it feels light for the size. At 147 grams, it is lighter compared to other 5.5-inch phones. The phone doesn’t score much in terms of looks — it has a simple unibody design with a nice matte finish on the rear panel. On the left side is the SIM and microSD slot while the right side has the power, volume button and second SIM slot. The SIM and microSD slot are covered by flaps that feel flimsy when open — if not closed properly, they feel like they might break off easily. Another issue is that the rear camera unit is protruding out and hence prone to scratches when kept on a flat surface.

It has a 5.5-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. The screen is sharp with rich colours and good brightness levels. You also get a helpful colour temperature adjustment option and a night mode with three software colour filters (red, black, yellow). Under the screen are the three touch sensitive Android buttons for home, menu and back that respond well. The issue is that these buttons are not backlit (strange for the price).

Panasonic has taken care of a common issue with this phone — battery life. The Eluga Icon comes with a massive 3,500mAh battery despite the slim and light frame. With normal usage including camera, multimedia playback, calls, social networking, two email accounts, constant 3G/WiFi connectivity and 60% screen brightness, the phone regularly lasted us two full days.

Hardware includes a 64-bit 1.5Ghz octa core Mediatek MT6752 processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB storage and a microSD slot (up to 32GB supported). You get 4G support thanks to the Mediatek MT6752 along with WiFi and Bluetooth for connectivity. In our usage, the phone worked well for day-to-day usage as well as for gaming. There were no visible frame drops in Shadowgun but we saw random frame drops in NOVA 3. The good part was that even after gaming for 20 minutes, the phone did not overheat — it stayed under 40-degrees C as reported by AnTuTu.

It comes with Panasonic’s new Icon user interface that shows all icons and widgets on home panels (there’s no app drawer). There is folder support, gesture support, auto call answer, flip to mute, lossless high quality Bluetooth audio mode, smart dial and in-car Bluetooth auto call answer features. You can even edit the status bar icons and customize the volume keys to control music playback as well as long press the back key to close running apps. In addition to all this, the interface provides multiple options for the launcher including transition effects, wallpaper scrolling, screen icon layout option and the option to auto arrange icons by shaking the device. Overall, we feel that the new user interface is rich with features and works well. However, it is based on Android 4.4. We hope Panasonic releases an Android 5.0 update soon.

Camera interface also has its share of tweaks. You have face detection, continuous shot mode as well as the option to control the camera with your voice. There are full manual controls with options to adjust exposure, contrast, brightness, white balance and ISO. Shooting modes include HDR, face beauty, panorama and a PIP (picture in picture) mode. Image quality is excellent — sharp details, natural colour and minimal noise. In low light, noise levels increase substantially but the results were still good enough to be viewed on the phone or shared online. The front 8MP camera is good for selfies if there is ample light around you. Audio output is another strong suit of the Eluga Icon — the loudspeaker as well as the in-ear voice speaker is loud and clear.

Overall, we feel that the Panasonic Eluga Icon is a worthy competitor in its price range. It does not have a full HD display like some other phones, but it makes up for that with stellar battery life. For a slightly lower price, you can look at the Yu Yureka Plus that has a full HD display, better cameras, similar specifications but comes with a 2,500mAh battery that lasts about one day.

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